Charatan pipes have had a very eventful past. They started off life being made in London, were bought by an American company, Lanes, then later sold to Dunhill Pipes, who sold them to another company before buying them back several years later!

Charatan pipes started life in 1863 when Frederick Charatan, who was a Russian-Jewish immigrant, opened up his shop in central London. He began by carving meerschaum pipes, which soon became very popular, so Charatan moved his business to a bigger workshop. He then began to carve briar pipes, actually becoming the first pipe brand to produce entirely hand-made briar pipes from the rough block to completed pipe, including stems.

Being known as the top English pipemaker, Charatan was actually approached by Alfred Dunhill. Dunhill was very unhappy with the quality of pipes that he was importing from France. So during 1908 - 1910 Alfred Dunhill purchased pipes directly from Charatan, although paying very high prices to make sure he had the very best pipes available for sale in England. Then in 1910 Dunhill managed to lure away Joel Sasieni from Charatan, one of his best carvers, to open his own pipe workshop in London.

In around 1950 an American, Herman G. Lane, was looking to expand his business into England. Lane Ltd. soon became the sole distributor for Charatan’s in the US. Soon Charatan pipes became hugely popular in the States, so in 1960 Lanes bought the company. Then in 1978 Lane's heirs sold Charatan to Dunhill!

Then, in 1988 Dunhill sold the rights to Charatan to James B. Russell Inc. a New Jersey company. Russell had their Charatan pipes made in France. However, these Charatans were terribly poor imitations of the original pipes and sales dropped. Eventually, in 2002, Russell went out of business and Dunhill re-purchased Charatan.

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